That vision is summed up in the name given to its project by one of aviation’s biggest players: CityAirbus. The business case for what are typically electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) craft capable of operating from small city centre helipads is the dream of avoiding road congestion, hence the generic term “urban air mobility”. Energy storage, rate of output, mass and manufacturing technology all weigh on the feasibility - and economics - of battery-powered flight so the question is: are today’s batteries good enough to do it? But whether or not the Tesla and SpaceX magnate intends to join the few dozen existing electric flight projects at various stages of development, his figures highlight issues that stand in the way of zero-emission flying. If the magic 400WH/kg (watt-hour per kilogram) capacity from Lithium-ion batteries was really so close, one might expect Musk to have launched an electric aircraft company by now - though between cars, rockets, tunnels and more exotic ventures like brain-computer interface implants, even he may have enough on his plate. High cycle batteries are just 300 Wh/kg today, but probably exceed 400 in ~5 years.” This summer, he added: “400 Wh/kg *with* high cycle life, produced in volume (not just a lab) is not far. Decade of Airline Excellence Awards 2020Ī little over a year ago, Elon Musk waded into a Twitter conversation about electric aviation with the remark, “FWIW, based on calcs I did 10 years ago, cross-over point for Li-ion beating kerosene is ~400 Wh/kg.
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